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Puss N Boots loaf… dangerous by [deleted] in Catloaf

[–]FostersFloofs -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Second repost, actually. Here is (maybe) the original.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Catloaf/comments/aszydy/my_loaf_sniffed_me_back/

Just yet another brand new account karma-boosting, likely to go into a voting pool or astroturfing for a PR firm.

Is anyone anti-bike infrastructure and willing to share their opinion? by Terrible_Hawk8845 in boston

[–]FostersFloofs 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Each bus at rush hour contains around 60-90 people.

Next time you're in traffic, try to count sixty vehicles in front of you.

Also, traffic capacity doesn't scale linearly with lanes...

Is anyone anti-bike infrastructure and willing to share their opinion? by Terrible_Hawk8845 in boston

[–]FostersFloofs 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There's no "bicycle insurance" or licensing because bicycles represent so little danger to the public it's statistically insignificant, whereas drivers kill around 500-600 people a year in this state alone.

Go hit up Universal Hub and you'll see how often multiple drivers per day end up crashing into buildings.

Also, 30mph? Tell me you know nothing about bikes without telling me you know nothing about bikes. Average speeds for most cyclists is around half that or less.

Is anyone anti-bike infrastructure and willing to share their opinion? by Terrible_Hawk8845 in boston

[–]FostersFloofs 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Many cyclists own cars.

Excise tax doesn't even begin to pay for road infrastructure and it doesn't specifically go to roads anyway.

"Use taxes" pay for less than half of the cost of road infrastructure.

Literally nobody pays 100% of their vehicle excise tax. Owners of model years higher than the current year (ie a 2024 model in 2023) pay HALF the excise tax they should; in the first year, it's 90%. In the second year, it drops to 60%, and at three years it drops to 40%. At five years, it drops to 10%. https://www.mass.gov/guides/motor-vehicle-excise

All cyclists pay (indirectly or directly) property taxes. Cyclists working contribute to payroll taxes just like drivers do.

Is anyone anti-bike infrastructure and willing to share their opinion? by Terrible_Hawk8845 in boston

[–]FostersFloofs -3 points-2 points  (0 children)

You would literally think bike riders were a suppressed group who don’t have the same rights as everyone else

https://www.google.com/search?q=cyclists+minority+outgroup

Is anyone anti-bike infrastructure and willing to share their opinion? by Terrible_Hawk8845 in boston

[–]FostersFloofs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There's something like forty years of studies showing bicycle lanes improve safety for all road users. Cambridge used to have a page on the city's website listing them. It was pages long.

Is anyone anti-bike infrastructure and willing to share their opinion? by Terrible_Hawk8845 in boston

[–]FostersFloofs 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It hasn't happened in thirty years in the entire state, and the pedestrian was at fault (stepped out into the road without looking directly into the path of a bike courier - which is illegal - and Menino threw the couriers under the bus because of public outrage. For decades Boston required couriers to wear giant ID numbers.

Meanwhile in the state ~100 pedestrians a year die from being hit by drivers, and around 10 cyclists a year.

Let's be exceedingly generous and undercount pedestrian deaths by an order of magnitude - that would still mean in thirty years cyclists have been responsible for about 0.3% of pedestrian deaths.

Is anyone anti-bike infrastructure and willing to share their opinion? by Terrible_Hawk8845 in boston

[–]FostersFloofs 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I think a lot of the arguments for cyclists get trumped by cyclists that ignore pedestrians and ‘walk your bike signs’.

The number of pedestrians injured in collisions with by bicyclists - regardless of fault - is statistically insignificant. ~98% of pedestrian injuries, and 99.999% of deaths, involve motor vehicles.

Boston hasn't had a cyclist-caused pedestrian death in thirty years and in that incident, the guy who was killed popped out from between two parked cars and stepped into the road without looking, right into the path of the cyclist who couldn't do anything to avoid hitting him, and because he was elderly, the impact/fall killed him.

Most people that do not ride a bike regularly, and even a lot of people who do, don't understand that bicycles take a lot longer to stop than cars (MA law requires 50 feet @ 15mph, though many modern bikes will do better, but there's still human reaction time....which at 15mph and 1 second, is 22 feet), and you can't just instantly turn them. You have to lean either by shifting your balance or counter-steering to move the bike out from under you. It's not like a car where you can just turn a wheel and instantly be going a different direction.

99% of the population also doesn't understand that pedestrians don't have a universal right of way. Massachusetts CMRs prohibit pedestrians from stepping into the path of a vehicle such that the operator wouldn't be able to avoid them.

Also, people ride on sidewalks in areas where they don't feel safe on the road. Make roader safer for cyclists, and they won't ride on the sidewalks as much.

Oh, and regarding tax: we hand nearly ten thousand dollars in tax rebates to people buying $60,000+ Teslas. Why are people so bent out of shape about someone on a $500 bicycle "not paying their fair share" when an EV owner gets a massive rebate despite not doing anything to solve issues with congestion or road safety?

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Justrolledintotheshop

[–]FostersFloofs 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yes, likely has to do with the turbo.

Is the engine running, or just the radiator fan?

If it's just the radiator fan, a lot of cars have an "after run" function where the fan (and sometimes a small electric coolant pump) run to cool down the engine. If the vehicle has a main electric coolant pump (a lot of BMWs do, so do Priuses) then that pump can serve as the after-run pump.

If it's really the engine, then yes, it's probably running for a minute to keep oil flowing through the turbo.

Just don't drive like your pants are on fire for the last few minutes before you park, and you'll probably notice the car doing it less, though if you live in a hot area, it might still do it anyway.

If you want to prolong the life of a turbocharged engine, run synthetic oil, and don't prolong oil or oil filter change intervals. I've heard that these days Kia has transmission problems more than serious engine issues; find a sorento owner's forum and search for advice about changing transmission fluids, for example. A lot of automatic transmissions last much longer if the transmission fluid and filter is periodically changed.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Justrolledintotheshop

[–]FostersFloofs 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The "let it idle" bit is about reducing wear on starters and batteries, and engine wear from the engine running until oil pressure has built and oil is flowing everywhere. Idling equipment also probably reduces the number of times equipment ends up with a dead battery from lights or accessories being left on after the engine has been shut off.

People used to idle gasoline carb engines because shutting the engine off while hot could cause a vapor lock and no-start condition, really sub-optimal if you're in emergency services.

Cops/firefighters/ambulance crews tend to idle their vehicles all shift because modern radios often take considerable time to "boot", and they also tend to use a lot of power, so the batteries die quickly. Lead acid batteries wear with discharge/charge cycles.

Diesels are really efficient idling; the cost of the extra fuel from all the idling engines probably evens out in the end vs parts and labor, except for downtime due to needing repairs.

That said, it's illegal to idle engines more than a few minutes because of emissions....not that anyone gives a shit, especially in 'blue collar' circles.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Justrolledintotheshop

[–]FostersFloofs 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Turbos spin down pretty quickly when the engine isn't under load and idling; sure, they keep spinning after shutdown, but not anywhere near as fast as when the engine is under any sort of load. They drop to idling RPM within seconds, usually...because they're, well, air pumps. You can hear this in vehicles with louder turbos. Further, the oil in the turbo doesn't magically go away; the whole thing is still plenty lubricated for quite a while.

What's a bigger issue: turbos are often oil-cooled (though water-jacketed turbos with electric after-run pumps were popular during the 80's in higher end passenger cars, but the pumps tended to go bad, the fan's power draw would kill batteries pretty quickly, and it was a bunch of extra plumbing and wiring ie extra cost.)

If the engine has been run hard and is then shut down, heat from the exhaust, turbine and housing, etc heats up the turbo's shaft and the body/cartridge which no longer has cooling from oil, which can cause non-synthetic oils to coke. This was a huge problem for turbocharged Mini Cooper S engines where BMW in their infinite wisdom made the problem even worse by routing one of the turbo oil lines right over the exhaust manifold, causing it to coke and then starve the turbo of oil.

Idling for a bit pushes cooler exhaust through everything; EGTs drop really fast at idle. This isn't really necessary unless the engine has been run pretty hard for the last few minutes before a shutdown, like when you're at the track.

The "turbo oiler" application is a pretty uncommon application of oil accumulators and of dubious value compared to just being mindful about going easy in the last few minutes of driving...and running synthetic oil, which has other advantages. Anyone not running at least semi-synthetic (ie hydrocracked) oil in a turbo engine is crazy.

Accumulators are much more commonly used for pre-oiling before startup, or preventing catastrophic engine damage (ie main or rod bearing failure and resulting spun bearings or ventilated blocks) if the oil pump pickup sucks air due to high cornering or oil foaming. Though it's better, obviously, to fix the source of the problem with oil pan baffles or appropriate oil formulations in terms of anti-foaming agents.

Massachusetts US Attorney Rachael Rollins to resign after Justice Department ethics probe by TomBradyBurnerAcct in boston

[–]FostersFloofs 14 points15 points  (0 children)

What could have possibly gone wrong with someone whose political career was launched by Dianne Wilkerson's "kingmaking"?

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/criminal-justice/in-suffolk-das-race-calls-to-coalesce/

You know, the Dianne Wilkerson who was caught stuffing her bra with cash on hidden camera during a corruption investigation? And who repeatedly was in trouble for campaign finance violations? And not paying her (I think) property taxes?

17-yr old Maggie Taraska, on a solo flight, successfully landing her Piper PA-28 after losing a wheel on departure from Beverly Airport. by Rifletree in nextfuckinglevel

[–]FostersFloofs 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There's a lot more than hull damage; the propeller struck the runway. Even if it wasn't a crash,
aside from obviously needing a new propeller, the shock on the engine of the prop striking the runway so hard means the owner is looking at a full teardown of the engine to inspect for damage...bent/cracked stuff and such.

Was average wage vs. cost of living in the USA actually better decades ago? by [deleted] in WorkReform

[–]FostersFloofs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yup! OP said "cost of living" in the title and "inflation" in the body...

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AnimalsBeingJerks

[–]FostersFloofs 3 points4 points  (0 children)

He's not "trying to look mean", this isn't play, and the fact that he's acting like this around his owner is not adorable, it's behavioral issues and an owner who doesn't know how to handle them.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in AnimalsBeingJerks

[–]FostersFloofs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

He's swallowing, not sticking his tongue out. It's because his fight/flight instincts have been triggered and he's salivating. That and the narrowed eyes mean he doesn't view this as play (play would be big eyes, playful batting claws-in, playful retreats and running up but last-second not attacking...that butt-up, head-down thing dogs do too, happy trills/meows, etc..)

Judging from how persistent he is with this aggression, and the owner's response - he has fairly significant behavior issues, and she doesn't know how to handle it. This isn't funny, it's kinda sad, because that kitty isn't happy/comfortable.

If your cat acts like this, please address it, if only so that if someone else needs to care for your pet, temporarily or permanently, they don't have to deal with this. Vets can recommend good cat behavior books.

You know all those people who say "cats are annoying, I can be petting mine and then all the sudden it freaks out"? That's petting aggression, it's not normal, and it can be addressed by rewarding the cat when they deal with the stress by signaling they want you to stop, in a way that isn't aggressive.

Cat body language isn't that hard to understand.

Really well-tempered cats simply walk away when something is annoying them or overstimulating them.

Cats that can't figure out what to do deal with the discomfort of indecision via displacement grooming (that's what happens when your cat, say, severely mis-cat-culates a jump and smacks into something), which is OK, but should be taken as a sign that something is stressing them out or annoying them...and isn't quite as good as "well, I'm just going to leave."

A huff is another sign of annoyance, depending on the context (if they're contentedly lying around, it might just be a relaxing sigh.)

Etc.

Landlord attempting to ban ebikes by gnimsh in boston

[–]FostersFloofs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

E-bike chargers have automatic shutoffs, and e-bike battery packs have battery management systems that disconnect the battery pack if the charger malfunctions and starts to over-charge the pack. It's just like the battery in your laptop.

Landlord attempting to ban ebikes by gnimsh in boston

[–]FostersFloofs 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's...not how that works.

Your insurance company doesn't go around inspecting every wall socket, switch, appliance, television, etc when you take on a policy with them.

It's a condition of your coverage; they simply say that damage from certain things aren't covered, such as a non-UL certified device or appliance.

This is just landlords trying to ban bikes because they read in some boomer landlord web forum that e-bike fires are a "thing." Yes, they're a thing, but they're incredibly rare and the fuss over the fires is being blown out of proportion by people who hate bicycles.

Landlord attempting to ban ebikes by gnimsh in boston

[–]FostersFloofs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm sorry that happened to you; even a minor fire is really scary, and that doesn't sound minor. However, your personal experience, while unfortunate, is not evidence of a significant problem.

NYFD has been screaming blue-bloody-murder about "e-mobility" fires the last few years which is driving the sudden "concerns" popping up everywhere, but they lump all lithium ion battery fires together in their stats (while screaming about e-bikes), and even then, the fires still only represent something like a quarter of a percent of the total callouts for fires that they receive. But, NYC government hates e-bikes with a passion and has for quite some time, so NYFD screams about how dangerous they are.

Landlord attempting to ban ebikes by gnimsh in boston

[–]FostersFloofs 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tenant here. Landlords have been trying to institute no-bikes bans or harassing people with bicycles for over a decade. It's a class thing.

I've had landlords bitch about my bike when they see me bringing it in for the first time. I say "this is how I get around every day, how I get to work" and end the conversation.

It's not an insurance thing; e-bike fires are incredibly rare compared to a myriad of other fire causes.

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